One-minute With: Ken Follett

Where are you now and what can you see?

I'm in my library, surrounded by several hundred books. Out of the window I can see a cedar tree which is two hundred years old.

what are you currently reading?

Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It's an allegorical tale of Stalin's Soviet Union, brilliantly done.

Choose a favourite author, and say why you like her/him

Dickens: in particular, Bleak House. I adore the warmth of his sympathy for his characters, as well as his masterful use of language.

Describe the room where you usually write

The library in which I'm sitting. It has a collection of authors drawn by different artists. Over the fireplace I have a print of Balzac by Picasso.

What distracts you from writing?

I'm often distracted by my collection of guitars in the library, with which I tend to distract others!

Which fictional character most resembles you?

Since age 12, I've aspired to be like James Bond... He just seems to know so much. Cars, guns, wine... and of course women. Or, at least, that's how it seemed when I was 12.

What are your readers like when you meet them?

There's no pattern. Male and female, all ages, all sorts of nationalities. My books are popular in places I could never have imagined... Turkey, China, Brazil. Lately the females have started asking for a kiss. Goodness knows what's triggered it; it's not because I'm getting any slimmer or less grey!

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

Someone I admire enormously is Bill Clinton: the best president we've seen; certainly in my lifetime. He made all the right political decisions.

Ken Follett's 'World Without End' is published in paperback by Pan.